The Healthy Celiac Podcast
Welcome to The Healthy Celiac Podcast—the go-to podcast for women with celiac disease! This podcast is designed to help you thrive beyond your diagnosis and embrace life to the fullest because you are so much more than just a woman with celiac disease.
Hosted by Certified Health Coach Belinda Whelan, who specializes in follow-up care for women with celiac disease, each episode is a blend of practical advice, personal stories, and expert interviews. Belinda shares valuable insights on everything from navigating a gluten free lifestyle to managing the emotional aspects of celiac disease.
Join me as we explore topics that empower you to take control of your health, and discover joy in every meal and moment. Tune in for practical advice and support as we navigate the challenges of celiac disease and empower you to live confidently.
To find out how Belinda can support you, visit her website www.belindawhelan.com and while you're there be sure to download your FREE eBook '11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free'.
For collaborations, please email me info@belindawhelan.com (no MLM opportunities please. 😊)
The Healthy Celiac Podcast
Navigating Intimacy: How Food Intolerances and Food Impact Your Love Life Ep. 185
WARNING: This episode contains topics that you may want to listen to in private.
Celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and food intolerances can have a profound impact on your intimate relationships.
If you've ever felt that discomfort and embarrassment from a dietary reaction creeping into your love life, you know what I'm talking about.
In today's episode I'm sharing strategies for overcoming these challenges—from foods to cut out, foods to cut in and simple tips to improve your anxiety levels around intimacy. Learn how you can reclaim the joy in your intimate moments.
Blogpost Mentioned
https://www.belindawhelan.com/post/energy-boosting-maca-turmeric-latte
Previous Episodes Mentioned
http//thehealthyceliacpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1720208/episodes/14165328-dating-advice-for-celiac-s-with-casey-cromwell-ep-140
Find out how Ultimate Celiac System can support your Celiac journey here
https://belindawhelantraining.com/ultimate-celiac-system
Wish you could get gluten free meals on the table fast that the whole family will love? Check out Meal Plans Made Easy
https://belindawhelantraining.com/gluten-free-meal-plans-made-easy
Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here https://www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes
Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
https://www.belindawhelan.com/dailyhealthtracker
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
Now, if you're one of the many people living with either a food intolerance or celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity or a number of other reasons where you can't eat certain foods, I want to talk to you today about how this can affect you in your personal life and your love life as far as intimacy goes, because it has such such a massive flow on effect when we don't feel well and can create problems in our sexual function and the way that we are in our intimate relationships. So on today's episode, I really want to talk with you about how you can get your head around this problem and how you can move forward, because what can happen for a lot of people is early on in their journey, when they're still trying to figure out all of their intolerances or just trying to get a handle on eating gluten-free. They have slip-ups and it can be embarrassing and it can cause so many problems that it's hard to be intimate. So when we think about it, you know, when you've got a bloated belly or you're passing wind or gas, you tend to not want to get intimate with your loved one or your partner because it can be so embarrassing, it can be uncomfortable. It's not always about embarrassment, it can be painful and it can be not enjoyable. So I wanted to give you some insights on this topic today to help you move forward, because you might be feeling stuck in a rut, you might be feeling like there's no light at the end of the tunnel, and I want you to get back to a place where you can be intimate and you can enjoy that time in the bedroom or away from the bedroom, and it doesn't hold you back in your life. So let's jump on into it.
Speaker 1:So the first area that I want to focus on is your mindset. Now, if you are, I guess, triggered by things that have happened in the past, perhaps when you first got diagnosed with whether it's celiac disease or maybe a lactose intolerance or some other food intolerance where you were consuming a certain food and you were finding that it was affecting you and when you would go to be intimate, you just couldn't do it because you just didn't feel comfortable. So it's about knowing that you can get past that. So what kinds of things can you do to achieve that? So, when we focus on the mind, we need to focus on what we want. So if we want to have an enjoyable time, let's focus on that rather than the past. You may need to set yourself up to be in the mood. It may just be getting comfortable and relaxed and making sure that that moment is going to be comfortable for you. So if you can look at it in a way that the outcome is going to be positive rather than focusing on the past negative experience, that can make a big, big difference.
Speaker 1:I'm all for visualization and focusing on what you do want. So if you've never done visualization, there's a couple of ways you can do it. You can do it with your eyes closed and you can picture the outcome that you want. Or you can write about it. You can journal about it. There's a number of different ways. So work out what is going to make you feel comfortable. Is it just simply thinking about it and visualizing it? You could do this while you're brushing your teeth. You could do it while you're laying in bed in the morning. You could do it while you're brushing your teeth. You could do it while you're laying in bed in the morning. You could do it while you're on your commute to work. There's no hard and fast rules with visualization. So, focusing on that positive outcome.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to your mindset. You may need to talk to your partner. You may need to let them know how you are feeling. You may be someone that needs some reassurance from your loved one, so you may need to tell them what's going on for you. Some people do find themselves in relationships where their partners get angry at them when they don't want to have sex. Now, this is a whole nother ballgame, but if you're giving up that pleasurable time because your partner is wanting it and you're not, he or she may not understand what's going on for you. So communication is key in this situation. So you need to tell them how you're feeling. You need to tell them what's going on with your body. You need to tell them why you feel the way that you do, and they may be able to help you get past that situation.
Speaker 1:Okay, now when we think about the anxiety side of things. So if you're feeling anxious, you're feeling scared, you're feeling like you're going to be in the middle of the moment and you know it's going to be painful, or you're going to pass wind or something along those lines again lowering that anxious level. So what can you do to lessen your anxiety? Definitely, getting yourself in the mood. This is going to be different for every single person. What gets you in the mood? It could be having low lighting in the bedroom. It could be burning some candles. It could be putting your favorite nightwear on before you go to bed. It could be having a relaxing bath to calm yourself down and get yourself in the moment. There's so many different ways that can help you in this area. So have a think about what is going to make you feel less stressed, less worried, because, honestly, anxiety itself and stressing causes so much pain in the belly and bloating that sometimes it's not actually the food, it's the thinking about the food and thinking about the worry of what's going to happen if you accidentally eat a little bit of something that triggers you.
Speaker 1:I know for myself when I first found out that I had lactose intolerance, I was doing my best to eat lactose free food. I would slip up every now and again. I just want to have some dairy. I've been lived on dairy my whole life, except for this snippet of time when I couldn't have it when I was breastfeeding my youngest, and it's part of my life, it always has been, and I would sometimes just have a little bit, and I wouldn't tell my husband, or I'd have some chocolate that had milk in it and it would mess with me and I would feel terrible. I would have the bloating, I would have side effects that were not nice and I'd have to admit to him I'm not feeling too good. I ate some chocolate. I know I'm paying for it now, so you know.
Speaker 1:It is about being open and, I guess, aware of what is triggering you and what is making you feel blah, because, yeah, that can be something that will really hold you back from being intimate. So, knowing your food triggers and knowing how to communicate about those food triggers and getting that support from your partner so that you can have those intimate moments if that's what you want if you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming that's what you want because not everyone enjoys it, not everyone wants to be out and you know openly admitting that they love sex. I personally enjoy it. I personally have a fantastic relationship with my husband, so I do get disappointed when I don't feel well, because that does hold me back from being intimate. So knowing what is triggering you is a huge one. So if you're in a new relationship, you may need to be a little more before we are intimate because I'm scared that I'm going to get sick from any gluten that's in your mouth or something along those lines.
Speaker 1:And it can be important to eat food prior to getting intimate that you know is not going to trigger you, and we're not just talking about foods that you're intolerant to. It could be foods that you know make you extra gassy or do make you feel uncomfortable Heavy foods, fried foods, maybe green leafy vegetables make you feel a bit gassy, or cabbage things like that that you know don't make you feel good. So maybe avoid those beforehand and eating early. So if you know that you go to bed at a certain time and then you're intimate, then making sure that you're not eating too soon prior to that can be a big help as well. So focusing on when you eat, what you eat as well, are huge, huge factors in the way that you feel.
Speaker 1:Now, if you are body conscious, this doesn't have to be just around bloating. It could be about your appearance. Maybe you've put on weight. Since you, you know, have changed the way that you are eating and you feel conscious of your body, the best thing that you can do is talk yourself into how wonderful you are, talk about self-love, talk about how you are amazing, and do body affirmations that can be very, very powerful to the way that you feel. Your partner is obviously attracted to you. Otherwise they wouldn't be with you. So body conscious is a huge thing in how you feel being intimate. Would you believe that most of the way that you respond in the bedroom is to do with how you feel, not what your partner does for you? So the better that you can feel about yourself, the better your relationship and intimacy levels will be. So that's a big one to focus on Now when we talk about increasing the libido.
Speaker 1:So let's just say you have lost your libido because you've changed the way that you're eating. You're stressed more, you've got more going on because you have to shop for certain foods to keep you safe, whether that be gluten-free because you've got celiac disease, or whether that's lactose-free because you've got lactose intolerance. We all have this added bandwidth. We have this added load to our lives and what happens when we are more stressed is our libido goes down. Now I accidentally found something that had increased my libido. I started taking a stress relief supplement not long after I had my third child. I just found that, not only having postnatal depression, but just having this extra family member, this beautiful baby in our lives just added to my stress level. There was so much more involved with having two kids under two and a teenager and having to juggle everything that I started taking this supplement that was for stress relief and, lo and behold, it actually increased my libido, and the main reason for that was because of the herb that was in that, and that's ashwagandha.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give you some information about ashwagandha and also a list of foods that can help increase your libido and can support your sexual function. So we're going to jump on into that list to support you. So I'm just going to read you some information about ashwagandha, and it's an ancient adaptogenic herb used in Ayurvedic medicine. It has long been known for its benefits to sexual health and overall vitality. Studies suggest that ashwagandha can help reduce stress, balance hormones and increase energy, all of which contribute to a healthy libido. So the herb itself may improve blood flow and reduce cortisol levels, which helps enhance sexual arousal and endurance. So in men, ashwagandha has been shown to support testosterone levels and improve their fertility. So if that's something on your radar as well, that can be important to put in the back of your mind for for seeking more information about. So, whereas in women, it may help boost arousal, lubrication and satisfaction. So yeah, adding ashwagandha to a daily regime could naturally support both physical and emotional aspects of sexual function, and I am a huge fan of ashwagandha. So something to have a look into if you're interested, all right. So now I just want to share a list of foods that often can be associated with boosting your libido, supporting your energy and enhancing blood flow, which may help with intimacy. So one that we very much know about most people know this is oysters. So oysters have a high zinc content, which can help support testosterone production and libido. So you know, oysters is not something you want to eat every day, but, you know, maybe you just need to get yourself to that point and getting back into the rhythm or routine of being able to be sexually active and satisfied. That could be a good start.
Speaker 1:The next one is dark chocolate. So dark chocolate is actually something that I recommend you eat more of. Some people hate it, some people love it, some people learn to love it. Now I had a client who was a massive fan of chocolate and she was eating way too much chocolate every single night, and what we did was we just got her to do a simple swap to dark chocolate, and she was finding that she was just eating a little bit of dark chocolate at night and it was enough to satisfy that craving. So it's not a bad thing to have a couple of pieces of dark chocolate every day. The benefits outweigh anything that any other chocolate will do for you. So definitely look into dark chocolate. It's it's really healthy, it's good for you and like definitely look into dark chocolate. It's really healthy, it's good for you and, like I said, it can enhance your sexual pleasure.
Speaker 1:The next one is avocado. So they are high in vitamin E and healthy fats, which can improve blood flow and energy. So if you are not a fan of avocado, you can actually add avocados to things like smoothies and brownies, and you can add them to other foods where you don't actually know that they're there. So that's something to be aware of. But I'm sure within this list you'll be able to find something that you like and can start to add these into your diet. The next one is watermelon, and watermelon can help improve circulation by relaxing blood vessels. The next one is nuts and seeds, so particularly almonds, walnuts and flax seeds, so they're rich in healthy fats and zinc to support hormone levels and increase stamina. Chili is the next one. So chili peppers in fact, so spicy peppers can stimulate endorphin production, increasing heart rate and blood flow. So most of these is good for both sexes, it's not just for women. So, yeah, if you are looking to improve your time in the bedroom, then I would definitely look further into some of these that we mentioned today.
Speaker 1:And the next one is maca root. So I love maca powder. I actually have a hot chocolate recipe where you put maca powder in it and it's so delicious, so nourishing, so that could be something that you could have at night, that could become a little bit of a ritual and that could increase your your function, so your sexual function. So let's just read what this one says so often called the peruvian ginseng, maca may improve sexual function and energy levels. So the next one is in particularly great for men, and it's pomegranates. So they are high in antioxidants, which support blood flow and may help with erectile function. So pomegranates are delicious.
Speaker 1:I personally like them. I love them in smoothie bowls, so that's something you could maybe add in the morning and something to look at there. The next next one is bananas so packed with potassium for muscle strength and vitamin B6 for energy and hormone support. So, again, if you don't like bananas, they are something that you can add into a smoothie and hide with other flavorings. But you don't have to have all of these, obviously. These are just. I just wanted to give you a list of options so you can find something that may work for you.
Speaker 1:The next one is figs. So figs are rich in amino acids and they're essential for boosting energy, stamina and libido. So I love figs. They are absolutely to die for and what I love to do with figs. If you've never done this, you slice them in half and you put a little wedge of goat's cheese in it and you bake them in the oven and they are next level amazing. So I highly recommend giving that a go. The next one is leafy greens, so things such as spinach and kale, high in magnesium, which helps dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow. The next one is beets. So they contain nitrates that convert into nitric oxide, which help with circulation. So a lot of these foods we're talking about today do increase circulation, which is ideal.
Speaker 1:The next one is garlic, so I probably would only recommend that you have garlic if your partner is also having it. I find that when my husband and I both have garlic, I cannot smell it on him. He cannot smell it on me. It kind of like neutralizes it when your partner has it as well, whereas if one of you has it it's quite offensive to the other person. So it's something you think about there. So it is very strong smelling when we consume fresh garlic, and that again can help with blood flow.
Speaker 1:The next one is strawberry. So strawberries are high in vitamin c, which may help improve blood flow and testosterone levels. So something to think about there. Strawberries are, you know, delicious. You could you could actually enjoy them together as well, you know dip them in chocolate, feed them to each other. That's an intimate moment that you create together. And the last one is ginger. So ginger is known for improving blood circulation and potentially enhancing arousal. So ginger is also great as it has that added benefit of helping with any bloating or any, you know maybe, side effects that you get from eating certain things. So ginger is great to add into your cooking or to have chewable ginger. There's different options there, so find something that works for you.
Speaker 1:But, like I said, this list is quite long and I wouldn't expect you to go out and incorporate all of those straight away. But, like I said, there's some there that I'm sure you would enjoy and and like in your diet, and the added bonus is those foods are natural, most of them. They are already gluten free, they are already dairy free, they are already available easily and can be added into your diet. So my tip would be to find the ones that you enjoy, add those to your diet, whether it be mix it up each day, add a few in. The next day, have something different, add a few different ones in and just see how you feel, see if these habits and these daily little tips and tricks can help you in your intimate situations.
Speaker 1:Now, if you are interested in finding out a little bit more about dating with celiac disease, I did do an interview with casey, the college celiac, a little while back where we talked about dating and different things that you know surround that part of our lives when we have to date with food intolerances or celiac disease. So I will link that episode below and I'll also link an episode called is your sex gluten-free, where I talk about things like lubricants and condoms and just keeping you safe in those areas. So go back and check out those episodes as well, because they kind of gluten-free, where I talk about things like lubricants and condoms and just keeping you safe in those areas. So go back and check out those episodes as well, because they kind of support this episode that we've talked about today. But I really hope that this helps someone out there who is struggling with being intimate and helps you move forward and improves your love life. So thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1:You're on youtube. Please drop me a comment. Please let me know what you thought of the episode or if you have any questions or if you wanted to have a more private conversation. Keep it clean. You can send me a dm over at the healthy celiac. So thanks so much for tuning in and I look forward to talking with you again on next week's show. Have a great week, take care. Bye.
